A look at what the forecast holds for Centre County through the Christmas weekend
Centre County was under a winter weather advisory until mid-afternoon Thursday, with wind, flash freezing and bitter cold all ahead in the days before Christmas.
Snow covered Centre County starting Thursday morning, and John Gresiak, senior forecaster for AccuWeather, said the area has received more snow than what was originally expected.
“We were expecting a couple of inches and I think we have like four or five out there now,” Gresiak said at about 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
Around mid-afternoon Thursday, temperatures will slowly start to rise, he said, changing the snow over to rain, which will “make everything kind of sloppy, slushy, yucky,” Gresiak said.
Driving conditions should improve later Thursday afternoon, but will get nasty again Friday morning, he said. Friday’s AccuWeather forecast for State College states it will be very windy, with rain early in the day, then up to an inch of snow, with a high temperature of 39 degrees.
From 10 a.m. Friday until 7 p.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service has Centre County under a wind chill advisory, which states “very cold wind chills are expected,” as low as 20 degrees below zero.
Temperatures will be above freezing first thing in the morning Friday — between 5 and 7 a.m. — but then temperatures will quickly drop, Gresiak said.
“This ridiculous cold front is going to come through and the temperature is going to fall, probably to at least the teens, if not the single digits by the end of the day (Friday),” he said. “There’s going to be pretty strong wind gusts, possibly 40-50 miles an hour, and rain will change back to snow. There won’t be a lot of snow, but there will be a flash freeze so any wet surfaces out there will turn icy. Car doors will freeze shut.”
People should watch for icy conditions on the roads and sidewalks through the day Friday, and should be prepared for potential power and other utility outages due to the strong winds, through the day and into Friday night.
This weekend is going to remain cold, he said, and will be one of the coldest Christmases in decades. Saturday’s high is 8 degrees; Sunday’s high is 16 degrees. The record for lowest temperature on Dec. 25 is -11 degrees, set in 1983.
“Saturday is definitely the coldest day, but Sunday isn’t a whole heck of a lot better,” Gresiak said.
This will be a large contrast compared to last year’s Christmas, which had a high of 62 degrees, according to AccuWeather’s website.
He said regardless of when people are traveling, they should remain cautious of the weather.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of flight delays and cancellations over the next two to three days, just because this storm is impacting such a large part of the country,” he said. “So even if it isn’t that bad where you are … where your flight is coming from or going to, it might be pretty bad and that might impact some of the flight schedules.”
The good news? Gresiak said “it looks like it’s going to get milder as we head toward New Year’s.”
Cancellations
The Penns Valley Area School District has canceled all after-school activities Thursday.
The State College Area School District has canceled CEEL and all after-school activities Thursday. All SCASD buildings are closed Friday, and all activities and practices are canceled.
The Bellefonte Area School District after-school activities are canceled for Thursday.
The Bald Eagle Area School District buildings will be closed after 4 p.m. Thursday. The girls junior varsity and varsity basketball games vs. Selinsgrove are postponed to Jan. 12, 2023.
Penn State’s University Park campus has canceled work and activities from 5 a.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Saturday due to the weather.
Mount Nittany Health has changed some hours for patient care on Dec. 23 due to inclement weather. Mount Nittany Health Surgical Center, Mount Nittany Medical Center (including the emergency department, endoscopy services and laboratory services) will remain open as regularly scheduled.
Closing at noon Friday:
All Mount Nittany Physician Group practices
Lab and imaging services at Mount Nittany Physician Group locations
Mount Nittany Health – Sieg Neuroscience Center
Mount Nittany Health Center for Wound Care, including Diabetes Foot Clinic and Orthotics
Mount Nittany Health Pain Management Program
Mount Nittany Medical Center outpatient programs: cardiac/pulmonary rehab, speech therapy, medical treatment unit, anticoagulation clinic
Bellefonte Corporate Services
Courier services
Call the Mount Nittany Health Information line at 855-405-8540 for hours at the following locations:
Radiation/Oncology Therapy
Mount Nittany Health Breast Care Center
Cancer Care Partnership
